Chapter 25: Massacre in the mountains

Thinking everything was fine, Bathsheba led the Silverwings over the empty runway at the airport They all followed her blindly, trusting her decision.
Suddenly a strange droning sound came from above, causing Mercury to look up. To his horror, he saw a human flying machine just about to land right on top of them. ''Look Out!'' he yelled as a warning.

Bathsheba looked up and gasped in shock as she realized what was happening.

All Silverwings screamed in panic, split into two separated parts to get out of the machine's way and quickly flew up to a high tower where they roosted together, shaking with fear.

For a second Frieda stared down at the machine before glaring angrily at Bathsheba.
Instead of looking guilty the chief elder just scowled at her, refusing to admit her mistake that nearly caused the death of the entire colony.

''Well, Veronica,'' Scirocco smirked down on Marina while she was being restrained by two of his followers, ''it looks like we have to teach you how to be loyal to the band.''

''Why are doing this? What gives you the right to keep us here as prisoners?'' she asked glaring at him.

''Tsk, you certainly don't understand how important it is for banded ones to be together. We can't just lose one of our own.''

''I don't want to be a part of your stupid cult,'' she snapped, ''Tell me where Vanessa is and then let us go.''

Scirocco shook his head, sighing softly. ''I'm afraid, I can not let this happen. You might be merely a regular banded bat like the rest of us but your friend is ... special.''

''No, she is not. At least not the way you think she is.'' She tried my best to persuade him but it was clear that he wasn't listening to her at all. Shade was right. This guy was nothing more than a complete lunatic. If she just had listened to him and Vanessa. Then they wouldn't be in this mess now. Speaking of Vanessa. Where was she? Solicitously Marina looked around but couldn't find her anywhere. ''What had this guy done to her?''

Hopefully she was alright, wherever Scirocco had locked her up right now.

With a nod of his head, Scirocco ordered Cassandra and Boris to step closer and Marina made myself ready to fight if necessary. There was no way she would go down without one.
But just as they were about to grab her, the door suddenly burst open and a heavy gust of snow and wind blew into the hut, causing her to flinch and close her eyes for a second.
Then she opened them again gasped in amazement.

There was a human male in strange green leaves, carrying a round, black object around his shoulder. He came up to the door frame and stood there with a strange humming sound coming from him.

''Who is the one they call Scirocco,'' the human asked and everyone imidatelly pointed down to the
dumbstrucked long-eared bat.

''The time has come for the transformation! I will lead you now!'' the man said, raising his hand.

''Our new leader!''

''A human?!''

''Who knew?''

Scirocco narrowed his eyes, his mouth twisted. ''Don't listen to him,'' he spoke to the bats, pointing at the man. ''He is not a human!''

Marina blinked in confusion and took a closer look. What did Scirocco mean? Of course that was a real human ... wait! Hearing the sound of rustling white leaves on the wall Marina looked up and saw on the first page the image of the exact same man, pointing his thumb up.
With a gasp she turned back to the human in the door frame, seeing him standing in the same posture like the one in the picture. Then she noticed a small figure in a corner behind the door. Shade!

The young Brightwings face lid up with relief. This human was an echo projection summoned by Shade to lure the banded bats out of the hut in order to save them from Goth and Throbb. That explained the humming sound and why he sounded so my like him. How clever!

''Obey me banded ones!'' The projection said, pointing outside, ''You must leave at ones!''

''We should do as the human says,'' Betty told Scirocco but the Greenwing disagreed.

''No!'' he exclaimed, ''Leave here and you will die!''

''Stay and you will die!'' the projection restored forcefully and glitched for a second.

Scirocco gasped as he noticed that. ''It's the Silverwing!'' he yelled up to his colony, ''He is playing a trick! Look, look ... I can do it too!'' He closed his eyes and placed his claws onto his head, trying to concentrate.

Quick-thinking Marina spread my wings and called out for everyone to follow her outside as she head to the exit.

All bats began screaming in fear and dashed out as fast as they could, while Shade's echo projection slowly faded away.
One of them, a young purple-colored female fell down to the floor after she got knocked down by one of the others. Marina landed down by her and helped her back up while urging her to leave.
Then she spread her wings to get airborne again, but a hand suddenly grabbed her roughly by the arm. Startled Marina turned around and looked into Sciroccos angered expression.

Shade was so glad his idea with the echo projection had worked and flew up to the entrance to make sure his friends and everyone else made it out safely.
Unfortunately, he couldn't see either Vanessa or Marina anywhere. Instead, he saw Betty flying out and flew towards her.

''Hey, where are my friends?'' Shade asked her frantically. Betty looked around, a worried expression on her face.''

''I don't know. I could've sworn I saw Marina flying out like everyone else.''

But where was she then and what about Vanessa? They had to be around here somewhere.
To make things worse, he saw Goth and Throbb getting extremely close by now.
''Quick, help me get everyone under the roof,'' he instructed to her and flew off with no further explanations. As everyone was hiding Shade heard someone landing on the roof above them, followed by the sound of growling and sniffing that grew closer and closer to where we all were.

''Shade?'' he heard Goth growling softly and froze, knowing it wasn't a good sign that he recognized his scent. Biting his lips Shade quietly prayed to Nocturna that he won't look down to see them.

''Goth, here!'' came Throbb's voice, causing him to turn away again. What Luck!

I kicked and hammered at the door as hard as I could but the cupboard just wouldn't open.
I breathed heavily, feeling exhausted and made one last try in freeing myself by pushing against one door with all might. Slowly, very slowly the door finally opened to a small gap.
Instantly I squeezed myself through, feeling lucky that I was thin enough to fit through. Then I stumbled to the ground and looked at my surroundings.
The front door of the chalet was wide open and except for a small group the banded bats were nowhere to be seen. In front of the entrance, I saw Marina being detained by Scirocco.

''Marina!'' I called out, causing the long-eared to turn around, looking surprised to see me out of my prison. Marina yanked her arm free and flew straight towards me.

Suddenly a sinister laugh came from the chimney and to my horror I saw Goth appearing out of it, followed by his cousin Throbb, who went straight to the main entrance and shut the door, trapping everyone inside including me and Marina.

The young Brightwing landed beside me in the fireplace's corner and signified me to be quiet. I nodded fearfully and shifted a little further into the corner.
Before us, on top of the chair, in the middle of the room stood Goth. Luckily with his back to us and with his large wings wrapped around his body like a majestically cape. He looked up and stared straight at the small group of banded bands, huddling together on top of the bookshelf, trembling with fear.

''Don't worry little ones,'' he said calmly and held up his left arm, ''we are with the band.'' And then the hunt began.

It was like hell broke out. There was screaming everywhere as the banded bats tried to escape the hungry predators. Blind for panic they flew into walls and furniture and stumbled against each other. The two cannibals, however, laughed like they were having the best time of their life.

Utilizing the stampede, Marina wasted no time, grabbed my hand with her feet and dashed towards the chimney. We were almost out when one of the panic-stricken bats rammed against me, causing me to lose my grip and fall back to the ground.

''Vanessa!?'' I heard Marina calling out my name but with all this mess going on it was hard to find out where she was. Bats were screaming and fluttering all over the place. I had to hide or fear being overrun by one of them. Or worse get caught by Goth or Throbb.
Quickly I spotted the cupboard I was held captive in earlier and dashed towards it.

Wasting no time, I squeezed myself through the small gap between the doors and into the darkness. There I sat down for a moment and tried to calm down. My whole body was tense with my heart beating fast in my chest. I was scared someone would open the doors and crawled further into the back. A frightened hiss made me spun around and to my shock, I noticed a pair of eyes gleaming in the darkness. There was someone with me inside the cupboard. I opened my mouth ready to scream but got quickly interrupted by the bat in front of me.

''P-please don't shout!''
It was a young Browning female. Her golden colored eyes widen in fear. Her whole body was shaking. ''Please, if you make a sound they might hear us and ...'' Suddenly the left door got violently torn open and a small ray of light came inside.. Not much since that chalet Itself was pretty dark inside. But it was enough to see the contours of Throbb's head.
Startled I crawled as far out of his sight as possible. But the Vampyrum turned his attention alone towards the poor Browning. He grabbed her by her wing and forcefully pulled her out while chuckling evilly.

''HELP!'' she cried out and desperately dug her claws into the wood and reached out for me. ''HELP ME! PLEASE!'' I tried to grab her but Throbb was too strong. He pulled her so violently into the open that the door slammed shut and I sat back in total darkness. The next thing I heard was earsplitting cries of pain and agony mixed along with the disgusting sound of ripping flesh and ferociously chewing and smacking.

I was terrified. All those cries, all those killing. I wanted to be away from this place right now. But I needed to wait. Shutting my eyes tight I pressed my hands to my ears with my knees pulled to my chest and started counting to twenty. Only then I allowed myself to try sneaking out again since it got quieter on the other side. Cautiously I pushed open the door and looked around. There were dark red spots on the ground but no sight of Throbb or the poor Brownwing. I gulped thinking of her and hoped it wasn't my fault that Throbb ate her. Not that he noticed me running over here and followed me. There were still bats flying around in panic but much less than before.

I desperately looked around, trying to find Marina, hoping she was alright and run across the room. I used every possible spot to hide even just for a few seconds and kept alert of my surroundings. I felt the urge to call out Marina's name but decided against it not wanting Goth or Throbb to accidentally hear me instead. Therefore, I kept quiet and continued running through the hut. Eventually, I reached the bathroom where I took my bath in earlier. The door was still ajar, so I decided to take a quick look inside, wondering if Marina was maybe inside.

''Marina?'' I called out but not too loud in fear of being heard by the wrong people. ''Marina are you here?'' Glancing around I spotted a small pile of folded laundry in a corner and quickly recognized it as my old clothes.
''Perfect!'' I thought happily and rushed over to get them. I had barely grasped my white cloak as a winged hand grabbed me by my arm and pulled me away, making me let go of it.

''I knew I would find you here my lady.''

Recognizing the voice I turned around and saw that Scirocco was holding me tightly in his arms.

''You thought you could run off just like that? Forget it! You are coming with me.''

Despite my shouting and struggling the Greenwing managed to get airborne with me hanging in his claws and fluttered towards the window in order to escape through a broken part in the glass. Right at that moment Goth came inside and got in our way.

''Well, well, well what do we have here? Trying to leave without even saying hello señorita?'' he chuckled sinisterly.

''H-hey get out of our way you...you murderer.''

It was a rather puny attempt but at least Scirocco tried his best to sound brave. But the huge, muscular bat just stared at him with disinterest and turned his attention to me back again.

''It would be a shame if you didn't stay for dinner,'' he said and hungrily licked his lips. I frowned at him and did the only and possible most stupid thing I could think of at that moment. Still, in Scirocco's grip, I swung a little back like on a swing and kicked Goth the grin out of his face.

''Argh!'' the Vampyrum cried out in pain and stumbled away. Startled by what happened Scirocco accidentally let go of my arms and I fell down to the ground, screaming. Luckily there was a pile of towels right under me which cushioned the impact.
The Greenwing dove under, trying to grab me again but Goth pushed him out of the way growling furiously. I wasted no time and hurried down from the towels before Goth could catch me with his claws and dashed back to my clothes. I grasped my cloak but before I could grab the others as well I got tackled and pinned to the ground.

''Now, you cannot escape señorita!''

I gasped seeing Goth's enraged face hovering above me. His razor-sharp teeth only centimeters away from my nose. He tore his head back and opened his mouth wide, ready to bite my head of any second. Just then Scirocco crashed against Goth, causing him to let me go.
Furious to see me running off again, Goth roared in anger and began to attack the weaker Greenwing. Scirocco tried his best to fight against Goth but of course he was no match for the cannibal.
Not wanting to witness the carnage I hurried outside, my white cloak still in my hands and crushed right into another bat and fell to my bottom.

''Ouch!''

''Ah! Hey!...wait! Vanessa!?''

I opened my eyes and looked up into the relieved face of Marina.

''Oh, Vanessa I'm so happy to see you. Where in Nocturna's name have you been?''

I shook my head. ''Doesn't matter let's get out of here!''

Marina nodded, not asking anymore questions and grabbed me by my hand with her feet before flying out of the chimney before anyone noticed us.

Finally outside, Marina flew as fast as she could to bring us both in a safe distance away from the chalet.
I held on tight to her feet and closed my eyes shut, trying to ignore the painful screams of terror and fright coming from behind us. I may not have liked them so much, especially that superciliously jerk Scirocco but even someone like him didn't deserve such an end.
However, it didn't take long until we caught up with Shade, Betty and the rest of the banded bats, who luckily made it out safely.

''Guys are you alright? What happened with the others?'' Shade asked worriedly while flying over to us.

''They ... didn't make it.'' I breathed, looking down as Marina sighed sadly. Shade sighed as well. For a while, we just flew silently at the top of the colony towards the south.

Soon after we landed on a cliff side, taking a rest and explained as well as we could what had happened back in the hut while I put my warm cloak over my new dress.

''So, you were the human?'' Betty asked, looking at Shade with astonishment.

''Uh, ... it was an echo projection,'' he replied, ''just like Sciroccos''

''Better than Sciroccos,'' Marina said smiling. Shade returned the smile, happy about her compliment.

''I wish I could have seen it too,'' I felt a little disappointed that I could not witness Shades improvement in echo-projection sooner. If the door would have just opened a little sooner...

Marina put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a comforting smile.
''It's alright Vanessa, we know you can't see echoprojections because of being a human and all.''

''Well, actually ... I can,'' I confessed.

''Say what?'' Marina and Shade both gasped and looked at me in confusion.

''Since when?''

''I started to see a blurry vision of Shade's echoprojection of a wolf back before we went up to the mountains and then I saw Sciroccos echoprojection of a human. That was more clear but also a bit glitching. Also, I told you I saw it Marina but you didn't want to believe me, thinking it was all real.

''Now I believe you,'' Marina said smiling, and I smiled back at her.

''Well, I guess we will be migrating together now that everything is fine,'' Betty suggested, motioning towards all the other banded bats.

Shades shook his head, ''Trust me you don't wanna fly with us.''

''We are kinda like fugitives Betty- uh, I mean Penelope,'' Marina said, correcting herself.

I nodded. ''Yes, those two cannibal bats, Goth and Throbb, they are after us and General Brutus and his owls are hunting us down too. It's safer for all of you if we split our ways here.''

''But why would the owls do that? Isn't it against the law to hunt bats during the night?''

Shade, Marina and I exchanged an uncomfortable look with each other. From all what we had told them, there had been one tiny detail we left out. Plus another thing which wouldn't have been a problem if they had still the chalet as a place to call home.

''That's a long story, to be honest,'' I tried to explain, ''Let's just say the owls are out of sorts with all bats.''

''But that's all the fault of Goth and Throbb,'' Shade said.

''I'm sorry we can't do much to help but recommend you to stay alerted for every bird in the sky in the night.''

''Don't worry, you guys have done enough for us already,'' Penelope said smiling, ''If it weren't for you, we would all be dead by now. But you gave us a chance to live at least a little bit longer.''
I gulped softly, not quite liking the sound of it.

''Oh, also we have a friend. Ursa a white black bear,'' Shade said, ''Look for her in the valley. She will find you a safe place for the winter.''

''I wish there was something I could do to repay you,'' she added.

Shade thought for a moment. ''Have you ever flown through wolf-ears?'' he asked.

''Wolf ... ears?'' Penelope asked blinking in confusion. ''No, sorry but I know about some wolfs living further southeast but are you sure you want to go there?''

''Well, we don't have much of a choice, I suppose,'' Shade said while Marina shook her head with a sigh.

''Well, good luck then. Hopefully, we will meet each other again one day.''

''That would be great. Goodbye!''

''Bye!''

After we all said our far wells to everyone Marina and Shade took off again with me hanging on Shades feet. We kept flying into the direction Penelope suggested but there wasn't a single wolf in sight.

''Are you sure this is the right way?'' Marina asked Shade after we landed on another crevice for a short rest. '' I mean, don't get me wrong. I just don't want to waste any more time before the sun gets up and won't be much longer before dawn.''

''I know.'' Shade sighed hanging his head down. Suddenly we heard the howling of wolfs and looked down to see a dozen of them, gathered before the entrance of a cave in one of the deep slopes. He looked at Marina.

''I'm not going down there!'' she said, vigorously shaking her head.

''What else can we do?''

''It's suicide!''

''But my mother sang me wolfs!''

All of the sudden Marina bursted out laughing. ''Wolfears! Wolfears!''

Shade and I looked at her puzzled. What the hell was wrong with her now? Did the cold infect her head or something? But Instead of telling us what was going on, Marina kept on laughing and hopped up and down while pointing at something behind Shade.

''Marina, what's wrong with you? Why are you laughing?'' Shade asked worriedly and tried to get her to stop, but she just kept shouting and giggling

Still confused about her behavior I turned around to take a look at what she was pointing at and ... laughed. Shade noticed it and looked at us as if we had finally lost our mind because of the cold.

''Wolfears!'' We both shouted, pointing insistently into the same direction.
Finally, Shade turned around and set his eyes upon two mountains in the distance. Their peaks curled in on each other, causing them to look like the ears of a large white wolf.

''Wolfears...'' Shade whispered then he too, burst out laughing.

About two hours of flying we eventually reached the glacial peaks and were full of hope to reach the destination of our journey.

''You really think my echoprojection was better than Sciroccos?'' Shade asked Marina.

''It convinced those banded bats, didn't it?''

''Not all of them,'' I breathed and squeezed my eyes shut at the horror I experienced back at the chalet. Above me my both friends sighed with sympathy.
Suddenly, there was a strange tingling sound, coming from behind us, sounding like wind chimes.
''What's that?'' I asked as we turned around in confusion just to gasp in shock.

Quickly, we dove downwards and hide under a large slab of stone. Peaking out from under it, we saw Goth and Throbb flying with triumphantly smiles on their faces. But much worse were the sight of the dozens of small silver bands that decorated their wings which jingled through the air.
Shaking with fear we three huddled together, hoping they wouldn't notice us.

''Are you sure it was their scent?'' we heard Throbb asking his cousin doubtfully.

Goth huffed and landed on top of the very same stone slope, we were hiding underneath. He grabbed the edge with his claws and took a deep breath through his nose. His long blood colored hair waving through the wind. ''Oh, yes,'' he replied sinisterly, ''Of that, there is no doubt.''
With that he got back up with a grunt and flung himself back into the air while Throbb momentarily landed on the same spot he was before, letting out a deep sigh before following him into the night. Shade, Marina and I kept hiding under the stone slope until we were sure they were far ahead of us.

''As long as that noise stays ahead of us, we know where they are,'' Marina said looking at us while I nodded.

''But in the meantime, we have to find food,'' reminded us Shade before grabbing my hands with his feet and soared back into the sky, followed by Marina.

''It's Goths bands again. They're way ahead,'' Marina said as we kept on flying through the forest covered in thick mist.

''Nice tracking Marina,'' Shade grinning, ''Goth's not so smart after all.''

We flew for a few more hours while the jingling sound grew louder around us until it eventually stopped. Feeling nervous, we landed on a broken tree stump and cautiously looked around, trying to see something through the heavy fog.

''They're not flying,'' Shade mumbled with a frown and send out sound waves through the area to get a picture of what was going on.

''I don't like this,'' I thought nervously, feeling like I was in some jumps scare video game. I could already see someone leaping at us out of nowhere any second and flinched as the wind picked up, causing my hair to get into my face. Then we heard the jingling sound again.
Having a bad feeling about this I looked up at the trees just like Shade and Marina and froze. My olive-green eyes widen in shock.
Right on cue, the fog lifted, revealing dozens of silver bands hanging on tree branches right above us. Immediately we took off again, screaming in fright and raced off as quick as we could until we stopped to hide under the roots of a giant maple tree when a shadow flew over us.

''Guys, relax! It's just another leaf,'' Shade said smiling and glanced after the brown leaf, dancing away through the air.

''That's not a leaf,'' Marina whispered fearfully as we heard the sound of flapping close to us, ''those are wings flapping. Really big wings!''

Wasting no time, we ducked deeper under the roots of the tree. Seconds later, an owl passed by not noticing us and disappeared back into the mist.

''Ok, that was creepy,'' I admit, still feeling afraid.

''Let's get out of here before we get caught,'' Marina said.

I nodded and was just about to grab on to her feet as we heard another set of wings flapping closely.

Was this another owl? The sound came closer and closer. Then it suddenly stopped. Whatever it was, it was close. Too close.

Shade, Marina and I exchanged a short look. All three of us were tense and ready to run off at any moment. Slowly and carefully I stepped back, closer to the tree as something poked me on the shoulder.

''Hey!''

''AAAAAAAHHH!'' I jumped right into Shades arms, startled at whatever touched me, causing my friends to scream too.

''AAAAAHHH!''

''AAAAAAAAAHHHH!''

''AAAAaaaaahhh...wait what are we all screaming for?''

''Ah... uh?'' Cautiously I opened my eyes back up again and saw that there was indeed an owl sitting right before us. But it wasn't any owl. It was ...

''Orestes!''

The young owl smiled. ''Hey friends.''

AN: So, that's it. I edit all chapters, which means the story can finally continue ^^

Don't worry you won't have to wait long for the next chapter.